Quirks and Fears
by The Broken Mask
Summary: Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #8. Every engine has traits that distinguish them from everyone else, quirks and fears that define them. These are the quirks and fears of four very different engines.


**Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #8**

**Prompt: **We all have our own little quirks (odd habits or personality traits) and fears, things that make us unique. What kinds of quirks/fears do the engines have?

**Restrictions: **Divide the story into sections, one for each engine, with line breaks inbetween. Use four or five different engines, one of which has to be canon (like Thomas or Henry), though more than one section can be about a canon character if you'd like. Other engines can appear, as long as the main focus is on the engine featured in a particular section. Human characters can appear and speak, but they can't be major characters (such as Sir Topham Hatt, though they can be mentioned); more along the lines of crews, mechanics, or station staff.

**Total words:** 4998

**Main Characters used:** Emily (Canon), Ace, Echo, Soul Catcher (Soul)

_Note: Alicia, Echo, Autumn, Ace, his siblings, Peirce and Soul belong to me, Little Star is shared between myself and Songbird's Call and __Bo belongs to Saberius Prime__. Other characters are canon._

* * *

Emily (Canon)

As the sun soared high in the sky, the emerald green steam engine puffed peacefully down a side line to get back to Knapford Station to pick up some passengers for another visitor sight seeing trip, her equally gleaming and clean coaches trailing behind her and humming a jolly song.  
"Hey! Emily!"  
Emily stopped at a signal preventing her from joining the mainline as her twin in black pulled up on the line in front of her with shouts and a long whistle, the one she was due to go on, blocking it and seemingly oblivious to the fact she was doing so. This of course nagged Emily, but judging by the extremely frustrated look on her sister's face, she bit her tongue.  
"What is it, Alicia?" She asked calmly, trying to read her sister's tricky expression.  
"I need to talk to you about something." The black engine soon quietened down. "A problem I have."  
"What's wrong?" Emily looked at her with concerned eyes, wondering what had made her lively sister like this.  
"The Fat Controller is making me work with _Diesel_ in the docks all day."  
"Oh...?"  
"I don't like him. I _despise_ him even. You know that."  
"Why not?"  
"Everyone says that he's changed since the lunch with the Earl. He hasn't in the slightest."  
"What makes you so sure?"  
"He's still the same Devious Diesel he always was, trying to pull the wool over other engines' eyes!"  
Emily went quiet for a moment, letting her sister rant and release some steam.  
"And he's always going on about how diesels are so "revolutionary" and that steam engines are a waste of space!"  
"Alicia."  
"And that-"  
"Alicia!'  
"What?"  
"You won't help yourself if you go into it thinking the worst." Emily managed to cut her off as another train went by on the outside line.  
"What do you mean?"  
"If you go to the docks expecting him to just cause trouble all day, that is what he will do." Emily soothed. "But if you give him a chance to show you that he has changed, then he might surprise you."  
Alicia's response was a huff and puffs of steam from her sides, still looking rather indignant but Emily could see it in her eyes that she was coming around.  
"If Thomas, Oliver and the others hadn't given me a chance after I took Annie and Clarabelle when I first arrived on the Island, I wouldn't be here now." Emily continued. "And we wouldn't have met again here."  
Alicia sighed, clearly thinking it over. That was until the loud whistle of a very fast moving train thundered up behind her and the black engine shot off with a start.  
"Good luck!" Emily called after her, but got no response as she disappeared around the corner.  
After a moment, the signal over her line dropped and Emily puffed out onto the main line to continue with her job, but she couldn't get her sister out of her thoughts.

Emily was sat at a water tower overlooking the main line in silent contemplation when her curiosity and concern got the better of her.  
"Driver, can we go to the docks?" She asked hopefully as he came around to her front to see what she was doing.  
"I don't know, Emily." He sighed. "You're needed to take some parts to the Steamworks."  
"Can we go past the docks at least? Please?"  
"You'll have to go very fast if you want to get the parts to the Steamworks on time." Her driver warned sternly. "Henry needs them urgently and you promised you would get them there while it was quiet."  
Emily froze at the thought. The big green engine had been in the Steamworks for a few days now, desperate for the parts that she was due to deliver, but seeing her sister so distressed meant she didn't want to leave her either.  
"I can do both." she concluded to her driver, who didn't seem entirely convinced.  
"If you're sure." He said, climbing back into her cab and setting off towards the docks with a whistle and throwing her regulator as open as possible as soon as he could.

Not that Emily should have been surprised, but when she arrived at the docks she found Alicia and Diesel working on entirely separate ends of the docks, not speaking to each other and when they were forced to pass, they gave each other nasty looks.  
"What happened?" Emily asked aloud.  
"They had one argument and have been like this all day!" Cranky complained from above. "The loads aren't being put in the right place and all the ships are leaving late. I wish they would sort it out."  
Emily puffed forward to Diesel when the engine stopped under the crane for the crates on his train to be unloaded. He didn't look especially pleased to see her, but he was too mentally exhausted to make a great fuss, although not tired enough to start making jibes as soon as she was within earshot.  
"Your sister is a pain in my wheels." He huffed. "She thinks she can do this all by herself, but she won't let me leave."  
"The Fat Controller assigned her here to work with you to make sure these shipments go out on time." Emily told him. "But they're not."  
"Tell _her_ that." He snapped.  
"No, _you_ tell her that." Emily stated firmly, making Diesel splutter in wordless shock. "Tell her that. Be honest with her. Tell her that you'll both be in big trouble with The Fat Controller if this continues and people complain."  
"Do you think she'll listen?" He asked wearily. "I don't want to get in trouble with The Fat Controller, but..."  
"Yes, now go on." Emily encouraged, and when his flatbeds were empty, that's just what Diesel did, very hesitantly indeed.  
However, from where Emily was sat, she could still tell what was going on. Alicia was clearly very unhappy to see Diesel approach, but the more he spoke to her, the more her angry expression softened into acceptance. Upon seeing this, Emily slipped out of the docks to make her delivery.

Emily puffed into the Steamworks as fast as she reasonably could, towing a singular flatbed with a tarpaulin hastily thrown over the top and tied down, entering the building with a whistle, making Victor appear almost instantly.  
"Why so fast my friend? You could cause an accident!" Victor told her sternly as workers began to unload Henry's parts.  
"Sorry Victor, I just wanted to make sure these parts got here on time." Emily replied breathlessly.  
"You're early." Victor told her before he went to start moving the parts away.  
"Thank you for bringing those parts, Emily!" Henry called down from where he was suspended by the crane.  
"No problem, Henry!" Emily replied as she began to leave the Steamworks for her next job. "Get better soon!"

* * *

Ace

Among the array of American engines that lived at Sodor's newly constructed roundhouse were twelve Alaskan siblings, all formerly working on the same railway in the Chugach Mountains before being sold on to Sodor with the honorific thirteenth sibling, and between them they seemed to have touched every corner of Sodor.  
The oldest of them, and the biggest, was Ace, set apart from the others by his red and gold stripes and lining and a 1 on his tender, as well as his nameplates. Unusually for this day, Ace was the last one of them to wake up, even after the ones who had been out late that night with last minute goods trains. As his crew steamed him up, he tried to pick put all the chatter among the siblings, performing a mental tally in his head of all of them. That was until he got to the twelfth birth, which was empty.  
"Has Lizable gone out already?" He sleepily murmured.  
"I didn't see her go." Bertram replied from the birth next to Ace, looking alarmingly awake but otherwise as coldly calculating as ever.  
"She wasn't here when we got back last night." Genevieve added with a yawn and a hum of confirmation from Fallon next to her.  
"Maybe she's out with Pierce." Jacques mused, with his twin Ken adding something that Ace didn't care to hear, nor did he care to hear the gossiping of the other pair of twins, Clarabelle and Danielle, from the other side of Bertram.  
"I heard him leave early this morning." Edrick piped up over the chatter. "He said something about getting stone from the quarry."  
"Lizable would be working on the Castle Line as usual, wouldn't she?" Harlon questioned Ace with a raised eyebrow, although his tone made Ace's boiler pressure raise.  
"Doesn't matter. If she didn't come back here last night, something has happened to her." Ace snapped back. "She always comes home."  
His attention was promptly drawn to Irenia when she puffed forward out of her birth and stopped short of the turntable.  
"Don't worry Ace, I'm sure she's fine." The engine tried to soothe Ace's nerves, although unsuccessfully. "She's probably just popped her whistle again. You know how she is when it gets warmer."  
"One of the crew would have heard, wouldn't they?" Ace questioned, only earning him a sigh from Irenia.  
"I'll see you in the yards soon then." She half joked before she left, leaving Ace with salt in his wounds.  
"Irenia is probably right you know." Bertram spoke up, making Ace sigh in frustration.  
"We'll see." He grumbled, leaving his own birth and getting on the turntable. As he spun, he stared down the births of his smallest sister and her former partner, which were next to each other for some reason unknown to him, and the more he saw them, the more suspicious he became. He soon puffed off, however, but he wasn't going to the yards with Irenia just yet.

Ace rumbled into the quarry as if he was running on his worry alone, finding the place up and running and Pierce sat up on one of the higher lines, waiting for his trucks to be filled. He sat there rather nonchalantly, which only infuriated Ace more.  
"Hey! Peirce!" Ace rolled up as close as he could to the other engine and called up as loud as he could.  
"Hmm? Oh, hello Ace." Peirce looked as happy to see Ace as Ace felt seeing him.  
"Where's Lizable?"  
"Isn't she on her line by this time?" Pierce replied flatly.  
"She didn't come back to the sheds last night." Ace ignored his reply, although that made Peirce twitch.  
"Now you mention it, she wasn't there when I left this morning. Or when I got back last night either."  
"When was the last time you saw her?" Ace pushed further and with more force.  
"I don't know, yesterday afternoon maybe? She was stopped at a signal with her train just before Ulfstead while I went past on the main line with that load of machinery from the Mainland."  
Ace gave off a groan of frustration, but both of them otherwise fell into silence.  
"You think something has happened to her?" Peirce asked with more than a little concern.  
"I'll figure that out myself." Ace snapped before promptly backing out of the quarry.

As he thought about where his sister could be, Ace was pushing himself as fast as he could down the mainline, weaving along the points and around oncoming trains almost by instinct as his mind worked over time. It was only when he saw the castle on the hill to one side that he decided she might have turned up safely there after all, and that he probably should check and get back to work before he got in trouble.  
As Lizable and Genevieve usually did, Ace really pushed himself up that hill, thick smoke pluming out of his funnel and whistling long and loud as he raced up the hill, feeling for just a moment that he was back in the mountains.  
However, when he peaked the top of the hill, he was distressed to find Genevieve sat in the station towing all four of the coaches and the platform crowded with passengers, and Genevieve didn't look happy with everyone crowding around complaining.  
"Still nothing?" Ace pulled up in the opposing platform.  
"Still nothing." Genevieve grumbled.  
"I just don't know where she's gone." Ace sighed. "Peirce said he hasn't seen her since yesterday afternoon-"  
"Understandable." Genevieve said with a bit of force to get Ace to stop and think.  
"And she didn't come back last night either." Ace continued regardless. "Did something happen? Did she get in an accident? Was she hurt by those rusty engines we keep seeing? Did she run away again?"  
"We would have heard by now."  
"It took us a day to hear that she ran away last time."  
"Ace, she has no reason to leave. She is as happy as any of us are here."  
"I don't know that Genny!"  
"Have you even been to the Steamworks?"  
"No..."  
"Then go already! Go and see that she's perfectly fine."  
"Fine, fine, I'm going."Ace huffed and puffed away before he got any more pushing from his sister.

Ace sceptically rolled into the Steamworks, looking around at all the engines in for various repairs before he almost ran into Victor.  
"Hey, Victor, has Lizable been in?" Ace asked before Victor could scold him.  
"Yes, she came in late last night and stayed here." Victor answered, glancing over to a far corner of the Steamworks. "She came in with a broken whistle, she is fine my friend."  
"Thank you!" Ace soon took off to the far corner, where his smallest sister was dozing away peacefully. Relief washed over him like water over a rock and he felt himself sink into his frames as he blew a little steam at her to wake her up.  
"Lizable, come on now." He gently called as his sister sleepily stirred.  
"Ace, what are you doing here?" Lizable grumbled sleepily.  
"You didn't come back to the sheds." He answered. "I was worried."  
"It was just my whistle, you know?" She replied. "I was helping another engine get up Gordon's Hill when I was on my way back last night but I bust it again. I came here to get it fixed but ended up staying the night because no one else was here."  
"Why didn't you say so?" Ace questioned as he moved onto the line beside her.  
"Because only you wouldn't assume something logical and drive yourself up the wall all day." She answered teasingly. "Only you, Ace."

* * *

Echo

A strange air hung over the narrow gauge sheds as the sun began to set behind them, that of a long-set routine broken by a sudden absence, and the absence was clearly marked by the gap behind one of the diesels, the bright white Echo. She sat at the front of the shed despite this space behind her, and her crew had even tried coaxing her to move back as well - but she refused.  
"Good night everyone." She spoke up at last, making a few of the engines around her jump but setting off a chorus of similar wishes before a more comfortable silence fell over them. No one was happy of course, but most fell readily to sleep.  
That was except Echo, who's mind was too active to rest. As she usually did, she looked out of the window next to her, looking out at the stars in the sky above her on the clear night. She sat in silence for a long time, watching the stars twinkle and the moon arc, until, without warning, a faint streak carved across the sky and disappeared as quick as it came.  
"Autumn! Did you see that? It was a... oh..." Echo had been very excited until she remembered that her adopted sister was gone now, no longer resting behind her in the safety of the shed.  
"Go to sleep, Echo." Duncan snapped grumpily from another corner of the shed. Echo snapped something unsavoury back at him, but closed her eyes all the same, eventually slipping into a dreamless sleep.

By the time the crews came back in the morning, Echo had been awake a long time and made very sure that she was the first out of that shed, even before Mr Percival came to talk to her, making tracks as fast as she could down to the quarry to begin work. Once again, she found herself looking behind her for Autumn, but this time she made no noise when she remembered the little steam engine wasn't there.  
By the time the other engines made it down, Echo was already working away, shunting the trucks to where they needed to be at a rapid and steady pace, although she carried an entirely straight expression.  
The other engines watched her work away with equally flat expressions, feeling the same sorrow she felt, but eventually Rusty made his way down as she uncoupled from a line of trucks.  
"You missed Mr Percival this morning." The orange diesel gently told her, making Echo sigh internally.  
"What did he have to say?" She asked flatly.  
"Echo, considering the circumstances, Mr Percival has said he will let you have a few days off."  
"What?!" Echo spluttered. "Days off work? Are you serious?"  
"Definitely-"  
"I'm not doing it!" Echo snapped. "I'm staying here and I'm working just like everyone else!"  
"But-"  
"But nothing! I'm staying here and that is final!"  
Echo attempted to reverse away to end the conversation, but found herself still hooked onto the trucks and brought to a halt with a jerk. When she was unhooked, she rushed off again as if nothing had happened, disappearing down Autumn's tunnel despite the protests around her. Only when she was hidden in the darkness did her rage fade and sadness overwhelmed her again, bringing tears to her eyes and even letting out a sob before her crew came down from her cab, one to stay with her and one to speak to Mr Percival.

After a while, Echo found herself up on the high lines with trucks, delivering them down to Owen full of stone and taking the new, empty ones back up for more. The only problem was the engine she was assigned to work with - Duncan. She managed to avoid him most of the time, not even speaking or whistling to him as they passed on the lines, and he gave her the same treatment, which didn't bother her in the slightest.  
However, when she was sat at the top of the quarry waiting for some stone to be put into trucks, she realised that there a lot of trucks getting filled with a lot of stone. More than what one engine could take. He fears were confirmed when Duncan rolled back up to the top and a worker came over to them both.  
"This load is too heavy for either of you, but it's not enough for two." The man told them. "You'll have to take it down together."  
_"Well that's just great."_ Echo grumbled internally, and judging by the look she saw on Duncan's face, he was thinking the same thing.  
"I'm at the front." Duncan declared as soon as the man left, not giving Echo a chance to protest even if she wanted to, puffing around to the front and getting coupled up while Echo silently went to the back.  
When she heard the whistle to go, Echo immediately began to push out of habit with all the strength she had, moving the trucks and even Duncan himself a fair distance before the yellow engine picked up grip.  
"Watch it!" Duncan snapped as he picked up his own slack, letting Echo ease off just a little bit with an eye roll, but otherwise letting herself fall into a trance as the train rolled down the mountains steadily.  
Echo remained so deeply in her trance that when they made it to Owen, Echo didn't even stop or think, and just began shunting the trucks onto Owen and anything attached to them. Even Duncan slamming on his brakes wasn't enough to stop the entranced Echo from pushing him onto the loading platform, only the intervention of her crew prevented her from pushing Duncan and several trucks off the edge.  
"Are you absolutely insane?" Duncan snapped from where he was half hanging off the edge."You're a safety hazard!"  
Echo could only look around as she saw everyone staring at her; Duncan, Owen, the workers on both levels and even her own crew. Embarrassed and ashamed, Echo took off and fled back to the sheds as fast as her wheels could take her.

Echo's peace in the sheds wouldn't last long of course, as no sooner had her crew left her to go to their common area did she see the plumes of smoke coming from another engine heading towards the shed, although she was surprised to see it was Duke. He shunted himself in beside her with no words but his usual kind, mentor look.  
"Does it get better?" Echo sniffed as tears formed in her eyes again.  
"It will." Duke confirmed in a low voice. "But you must give yourself time to heal as well. I lost some very close companions when I was on the Mid Sodor railway, they disappeared into the night after being sold and I never heard from them again."  
"It's not quite what happened to Autumn though." Echo replied. "When she arrived at my railway, she was just silent. We built each other up and helped each other with everything. Now I feel like I'm missing my engine."  
"You should take Mr Percival's offer." Duke pointed out with more than a hint of sternness.  
"But I need it to keep me busy."  
"It isn't keeping you busy."  
"Maybe you're not wrong. I don't know what to do anymore."  
"Rest. Heal. Open yourself to new things." Duke told her rhythmically. "Autumn still lives through you and everyone else here. She wouldn't want you to be sad."  
"I know, it's just..."  
"Take a few days leave." He encouraged. "I'll keep those scallywags in line, don't you worry youngling."  
For the first time in days, Echo laughed, even if it was a small one. She knew Duke was right, but she still knew that the wounds would never heal.

* * *

Soul

In the backwoods of Sodor, a very rusted tender engine looked up at the clearing sky with great apprehension. There had been a heavy storm over night and that could only mean one thing - floods and puddles everywhere. There was a big one just outside her shed for starters, and it reflected the orange dawn sky too clearly for her liking.  
All the same, it didn't stop her crew steaming her up with what little coal they had left and other things they were able to scavenge, ready to take her out in the dim light. She had heard her crew talking about some rumours of a coal shipment coming in that morning, lots of good quality coal that would keep the rusty engine and her tank engine sister going for months. Their other shedmate had long gone and she was glad, there would be no way that he would approve of this.  
"Come on, time to go." Her fireman called gently down to her from her cab, his tone of voice reflecting exactly how she felt, but a grunt from her driver reflected that there really was no choice in this.  
"Come on Soul." Her driver huffed. "We don't have time for hanging around here. You know what happens if we get caught."  
The woman's words made the water in her boiler run cold as she thought of her missing siblings, despite the woman getting yet another scolding from her fireman.  
"No, no, it's fine, I'm going." She called back in an effort to make as quiet an exit as possible, since her sister was still dozing in the shed behind her. She didn't whistle as she left, instead just puffing quietly away into the dull morning.

Soul hurried back to the shed as fast as she could, pushing two trucks full of coal in front of her as the passing wind rushed in and under the patches all over her body, trying to calm her racing thoughts. Even her crew had gone quiet in her cab, only peeking out of the sides to see that the front of the two trucks was actually still on the rails.  
However, when they made it back to the shed and saw the delight on Little Star's face, the guilt was washed away just a little and for a little while as well, watching their owners and crew steam her up with the coal. Soul rested and watched from the birth that her partner usually took, but he was out working for The Fat Controller - at least, that's where Soul _thought_ he was. That illusion was quickly shattered by the unmistakable sound of the huge engine thundering down the track to their shed.  
"What's Bo doing back already?" Little Star chirped from her side of the shed, her eyes wide and her voice full of child-like confusion.  
"I don't know." Soul replied flatly, but as he approached, she instinctively put herself across the points into the shed with Little Star and the two trucks behind her.  
"I knew it!" Bo spluttered when he was close enough, towering over Soul and the others as much as he did any other engine, but he also sounded disappointed. "As soon as I heard about a rusty engine taking coal, I knew it was you."  
"What about it?" Soul challenged firmly. "We can't use your supply forever. They'll notice."  
"They'll notice when you steal trucks of coal in broad daylight as well." Bo challenged back just as firmly.  
"We're doing what we have to do to survive."  
"By stealing? By pushing other engines off the rails?"  
"That was a legitimate accident!" Soul could feel the pressure in her boiler rising. "Do you really think I would deliberately hurt another engine?"  
"I didn't think you would steal coal!"  
"There's no other way for George and Lynn to get the things to keep us running."  
"But-"  
"No. Other. Way."  
Both of the bigger engines went quiet for a moment, as did the two people in the shed. It was Little Star who spoke up.  
"Where do you get your coal from?" She asked Bo.  
"From working for The Fat Controller." Bo answered calmly.  
"Could we do that?"  
"No." Soul answered firmly.  
"Why not?" Star protested.  
"Yes, why can't you all come work for The Fat Controller?" Bo wasn't mocking her, even if he was frustrated.  
"They'd never accept us." Soul answered quietly and sadly after a moment.  
"Why not?" Bo prompted further.  
"Look at us, Bo." The rusty engine protested. "We're all rusted and falling apart, like we ever actually fitted together in the first place. Other engines are afraid of us for a reason, there is no way they would want to work with us."  
"Even me?" Star whimpered.  
"No, you'd look wonderful with a bit of professional care and a coat of paint." Soul replied, and she wasn't lying either. Out of all of their siblings, living and deceased, Star was the most normal looking one on them all. She could pass in among other engines easily, if Soul ever let her, but she was a different matter.  
"You look wonderful as well." Bo soothed, whooshing steam at her gently.  
Soul sighed as the steam washed over her, biting her tongue to prevent herself from lashing out with the immediate response.  
"You are slightly biased." She said. "That engine that found me was scared of me, the ones in the docks were scared of me and I scared that big engine into having an accident when we first left the cave."  
"You _surprised_ them." Bo tried to correct her, but Soul remained unconvinced. "No one is afraid of you."  
"I am!" Soul snapped, but she realised what she had said as soon as she said it and stuttered her words trying to cover it up. "I-I m-mean-"  
"You're scared of yourself?" Her owners and crew came in front of her now, but it was her driver Lynn that questioned her. "That suddenly makes a lot more sense."  
"Why did you never say anything before?" Her fireman George gently questioned. "If we knew, we could have helped."  
"Because it's stupid." Soul answered with a sigh, backing herself back into the shed, where the light didn't shine on her. "It's how I've made it this far, away from the Hunters. Everyone I saw always reacted so badly when they saw me, I started to think the worst. Even now when I see myself in puddles or in the sea at the docks, I see what _they_ saw - some kind of hybrid monster engine."  
"No one is as scared of you as you think, I promise you." Bo puffed forward to kiss her forehead gently. "So what if you're rusted up? I think you're beautiful as you are."  
Soul gave Bo a weak smile, still feeling sad even though she was better than before.  
"Listen, let me take that coal back and I'll speak to The Fat Controller to see if he'll let you get fixed up and painted at the Steamworks." Bo offered. "Both of you."  
Soul looked over at Star, whose eyes were glittering in glee, and to her crew, who seemed interested in the offer.  
"Sure." She answered, shunting herself around so Bo could take the coal away, but moving herself back around so both of the sisters could watch him go.  
As excited as everyone seemed to be about it, with Star, George and Lynn chattering away beside her, Soul couldn't help the sinking feeling she felt deep in her boiler as she watched the huge engine puff away.


End file.
